New York Jets' Sal Alosi shows the NFL is full of dirty little secrets

Sweetness is just a nickname in football. Sneak into meeting rooms across the NFL, and you'll find a league full of desperate men and dirty little secrets.

Take the Jets' Sal Alosi, the assistant coach suspended for tripping an opposing player during Sunday's loss to the Dolphins. Reports have surfaced that Alosi ordered four inactive players to help form a wall of unflinching muscle, ready to impede any Miami player who stepped over the white line.

Who thinks of this stuff?

"I wish I could tell you this is something I saw, heard about or participated in," said former NFL safety Doug Plank, an assistant coach for Rex Ryan's Jets in 2009. "I didn't see any of that."

What Plank does remember is a Dolphins player getting knocked out of bounds while covering a punt last season, and then cutting through the Jets' bench area like a bull on the streets of Pamplona, knocking over bystanders without regard. And to Plank, this sounds like orchestrated retribution.

"If you research this story, I'd be surprised not to find some sort of event that happened earlier that prompted this," Plank said.

The story is beyond fishy. No strength and conditioning coach has the authority to order inactive players into positions of danger. But Alosi is taking all the heat, and as a result, his career might be in jeopardy.

"There really isn't a whole lot to talk about," said Sal's younger brother, Pete, an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Cardinals. "Things kind of got blown up. He should be all right."

So he was the fall guy?

"I wouldn't say that," Alosi said.

The NFL always has been home to renegades. When Plank was a bone-crushing safety for the Bears, he remembers how insensitive coaches would prod injured players to get out of the training room and onto the field. After he retired, he discovered there was a bounty on his head, that opposing players could've earned a cash prize or a 19-inch television had they taken him out of a game. He remembers the layers of paranoia that spread throughout an organization.

To be fair, not all information is gained by rummaging through hotel meeting rooms.

"I know when Arizona went to New England a few years ago (and lost 47-7), they didn't know about putting silicone on your cleats, and how that keeps the snow from clumping and sticking," Cardinals kicker Jay Feely said. "Teams up north understand that stuff because they have to play in those conditions. They learn those tricks, like putting wool inside their helmets to keep them warmer."

Unfortunately, the NFL is also full of covert operations, spy games and janitors who carry camcorders to tape unsuspecting opponents. It's also clear that some organizations view such behavior a little differently than others.

For instance, Josh McDaniels was with the Patriots when they were fined for illegally filming opposing teams. Is it a coincidence that his video director in Denver was caught taping a San Francisco practice session in London?

Before he was fired, McDaniels claimed he never saw the tape, just like the Jets claim Alosi acted on his own. Yeah, right. And how stupid do you have to be to tape the 49ers and that yucky offense?

Alas, in the NFL, the pressure to win is intense. Coaches who fear termination are tempted to do whatever it takes, legal or otherwise. Every organization has its own culture, and some seem a little more reckless than others.

Just ask Cardinals punter Ben Graham, who once played Australian rules football.

"Australian rules football is more hardcore, but the NFL is more cutthroat," Graham said. "In the NFL, I was cut twice in three weeks by the same team."